Quipu recording device based in knots ML600004

Inca style1300 AD - 1532 AD

Museo Larco

Quipus were the main system of recording information in Inca administration. In the knotted strings accounting information is recorded. The colors, knots and distances between them tell us about the type of object or the characteristics of the population that was recorded. In the Inca state, specialist officers that keep this information were called quipucamayocs. The Inca accounting was based on a decimal order. Quipus use a positioning system of knots along the strings that represent from units to tens of thousands. The colors of the cords and the structure of the threads and knots contain information about the identity of what was counted and recorded. It was possible to distinguish whether they were people, men or women, type of work or production. Certain ver large quipus seem to have recorded information of a community in a long period of time, like a calendar. Quipus consist of a primary cord, and pendants, mostly made ​​of cotton, and some camelid fiber. Some quipus have also pendants cords and intentional spaces between groups of strings that might have distinguished categories of data. (UH)